New York, New York – Elon Musk‘s SpaceX began its first day as a public company on Wall Street Friday after the biggest initial public offering in history, with the polarizing entrepreneur promising he will take humanity to Mars.
The blockbuster operation, which raised more than $75 billion, is expected to make Musk the world’s first trillionaire and kick off a series of major IPOs by AI companies in the coming months.
The first trades – and the level of demand – were expected to be confirmed shortly after the opening of the Nasdaq market in New York.
“SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to Mars, and ultimately beyond,” Musk said at a launch event in Starbase, Texas, surrounded by staff.
SpaceX sets a date for historic IPO that could bump Elon Musk into trillionaire status
“I’m confident at this point that with the incredible team that we have here at SpaceX, that we will do that for you,” Musk added.
About 100 people assembled outside the Nasdaq exchange’s home in New York, where SpaceX also marked the occasion with a neon sign in Times Square reading “Building the infrastructure to the future.”
Musk “sets very futuristic goals that no one else is doing, and I think that has got a lot of people excited,” said Sarin Sio, of financial company Dovetail, who had come to the Nasdaq headquarters.
The company priced more than 555 million shares at $135 each in a filing with the US markets regulator on Thursday, placing SpaceX in the top 10 of Wall Street’s biggest companies with a valuation of just under $1.8 trillion – ahead of Tesla, Facebook-owner Meta and Walmart.
Options for nearly 83 million additional shares could push the total above $86 billion.
Co-founded by Musk in 2002, the rocket startup has since expanded into a major satellite operator and has also folded in Musk’s artificial intelligence company – xAI – which includes the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
The conglomerate will trade under the ticker symbol “SPCX,” and all eyes will be on how Wall Street absorbs the offering.
SpaceX is the first out of the gates among leading AI giants eyeing public markets, with OpenAI and Anthropic both recently filing initial documents with regulators.
SpaceX also launched a Falcon 9 rocket loaded with Starlink satellites Friday, less than an hour before the IPO launch. The rocket was carrying 29 Starlink internet satellites, destined to join an existing network of more than 10,000 satellites.
The Falcon 9 has now completed more than 600 flights, making it the workhorse of the commercial and military satellite launch industry.
